Decluttering is all about getting rid of unnecessary items to give yourself more space to move, live and function. As much as anything else, decluttering is a state of mind. Many of us find it difficult to start to get rid of ‘stuff’, because we are conditioned by a consumerist society to think that more stuff is better.

This page will help you to get started on the process of decluttering your material possessions. It provides practical suggestions for how to approach this task. It will also give you ideas on how to overcome some of the mental barriers associated with letting go of your belongings.

The page also covers some of the benefits to your wellbeing that can be gained from a less cluttered living or working space.

Our companion page on decluttering your life looks at how to begin streamlining a hectic lifestyle and calming a busy or over-active mind.

Why Declutter?

First, and most important, an uncluttered environment is good for mental wellbeing.

Stress in our lives is not only caused by major life events or pressure in the workplace. It can also be caused by our environment. Our surroundings can have a profound impact on our mental health (see our page on understanding stress for more information). ‘

Stuff’, regardless of whether it is a physical possession or the contents of your inbox, demands attention and takes up time. You might need to clean it, take care of it, respond to it, worry about it, or look for it. Many studies have found that the process of decluttering both tangible and intangible items is cathartic or even therapeutic. It can be rewarding in many ways, including by relieving emotional tension and restoring a sense of calm.

For many families and individuals, living without psychological and physical clutter is an important factor in maintaining mental wellbeing. Some choose to live a fully minimalist lifestyle, with possessions pared down to the bare essentials. However, you don’t need to go that far. Even the process of restoring order to a previously disorganised living space can have a significant impact on your levels of stress and anxiety.

If you are the kind of person who is always hunting for keys in a panic before you leave the house, or who can’t find essential paperwork before an important meeting, decluttering could help. There is much truth in the old adage ‘a place for everything and everything in its place’. If you don’t have a place for everything, then you probably have too many things.

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Getting Started: A Process for Decluttering

Making the decision that you need to do some decluttering is one thing. Actually getting started is quite another. This process may help you to move forwards.

1. Ask yourself ‘why’ before tackling ‘how’.

For many people, the process of decluttering can be difficult to tackle and may seem overwhelming.

You may already understand the benefits and want to reap the rewards of a decluttered life, but still find it hard to get started. You may not really want to declutter at all, but are moving house, and will have less space.

Considering why you need to declutter will help you focus on the end goal. For example:

• Do you currently feel that your living space is not really a home, but just a big storage container for years of accumulated possessions, and you want this to change?

• Is your home disorganised and untidy, and you want to be able to find everything when you need it?

• Do you find it stressful being at home because you can’t relax in that level of mess?

• If you want your home to be somewhere calm and relaxing, where you want to spend time, this should be the focus of your decluttering.

• If your workspace is your decluttering focus, you might be thinking about having a place where you can concentrate in peace with a clear mind, or where you will be able to find inspiration, motivation or creativity.

2. Set aside some time

The amount of time you will need to spend will depend on your end goal and the magnitude of the task. It will also depend on how you work best.

Do you lose motivation if a task seems too big and overwhelming? This is a normal reaction for most people. If this sounds like you then set yourself small goals.
For example, each day you could:

• Spend a finite amount of time (e.g. 30 minutes) tackling a particular room, then leave it alone until the next day.

• Tackle one small area each day e.g. one drawer or one shelf a day.

• Aim to throw out (recycle or donate) a small number of items each day (e.g. 3 items of clothing each day for a week).

Or are you the sort of person that needs to tackle a task head-on and keep going until it is finished? You could plan to spend a weekend or take some time off work to tackle your decluttering project. Remove all your usual distractions from your space (such as your phone), wear comfortable clothes, stock up on your favourite snacks, put on some music and get stuck in!

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3. Don’t procrastinate

Many of us procrastinate when we are faced with an unpleasant task. We distract ourselves by checking social media, heading to the fridge or ‘popping out’ to the shops. Ironically, this just makes the task take even longer. Some ideas for overcoming procrastination are:

• Set yourself an end goal, then you can make a commitment to yourself to achieve that goal. Keep that goal in your mind to help you through any slumps in motivation.

• Share your goal with friends or with somebody you know who is tackling a project themselves. Post before, during and after photos on your social media. Encouragement from friends will boost your motivation. You could invite a friend to help you declutter and tell them not to let you postpone to a different time.

• Don’t focus on everything at once. Even if you want to tackle your project in one go over a long weekend rather than in small daily chunks of time, it is still important to split the job into smaller tasks. You will be more efficient if your mind is only concentrating on one small area at a time.

• Reward yourself for each small achievement. This is so important. Even a tiny step is a step in the right direction. It might have taken a seemingly disproportionate amount of mental strength to make that step, but you made it, so celebrate it.

For more on this, see our page on avoiding procrastination.

4. Start with the easy stuff

Some items will be much more difficult to relinquish than others. It’s a good idea to start with the easy things and build up to the more emotional challenges. Easy things include:

• Out-of-date items such as food, medication, cosmetics, and household products. You may also consider starting to write the date on perishable items when you open them. This will mean that you can easily see when things become out of date and should be checked to see if they are still usable. If they’re no good, throw them away.

• Duplicate items, such as kitchen utensils (do you really need five wooden spoons?)

• Items of clothing that don’t fit or that you don’t feel happy or comfortable wearing. If you’re not sure, try them on, and look at yourself in the mirror. If you don’t feel good about them, let them go.

• Items you haven’t used in years. If you have items stored away that haven’t seen the light of day for a long time, then you probably don’t need them. This is often complicated by the fact that these are sometimes of sentimental value (see below). However, a simple way to start would be by asking yourself ‘does it bring me joy?’ If the answer is no, then let it go.

• Things you are keeping “just in case”. There is a reasonable chance that even if you do actually end up needing it one day, you won’t be able to find it! If you can’t see yourself using it in the near future for something specific, consider letting it go. You will probably be able to borrow or buy one in the future if necessary.

• Old paperwork such as receipts, bills and bank statements. Consider what the documents are needed for, when in the future they might be required and how easy it would be for you to get a duplicate copy if you don’t have the original.

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5. Move on to more sentimental items

Many of us feel an emotional attachment to ‘things’. From teddy bears, to love notes, ticket stubs, travel souvenirs, and tee shirts, we all have items that are linked to significant memories or people. Letting go of items like this can feel like letting go of a link to the past.

First of all, you don’t actually have to let go of anything that you don’t want to lose.

Provided you have space, it’s OK to keep things that you value, and that give you joy. Decluttering gurus would have you believe that ‘everything must go’, but it can sometimes be easier to hold to William Morris’ mantra to have nothing in your house that you do not “know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”.

Once you have decided that you need at least to sort your sentimental items, don’t feel that you need to rush the process.

Especially if it is likely to be a painful process, take your time. Professionals recommend ‘practising’ your decluttering skills on things that don’t carry sentimental meaning. This will strengthen your ability to ‘let go’.

Next, record the items.

Take a photo of them and tell their story. For example:

• If you are holding on to your grandmother’s recipe book simply because it reminds you of the time you spent cooking with her, take a photo of the book, record your memories of those times and make a note of your favourite recipe.

• Perhaps you have kept a t-shirt from your first pop concert. Photograph it, write down your memories of that experience and reminisce with the friends that you went with.

Once you have tackled a few items like these, you will begin to realise that it’s the significance of the memory that is important and not the item itself. A scrapbook or photo album of memories takes up far less space than the items themselves and has the added benefit of being a written and visual record of your life story.

You might also try giving items a ‘lap of honour’: using them again one last time.

This is a way of honouring the memory and your relationship with that item, or emotionally re-connecting with the person that you received the item from. For example:

• Arrange a party with old friends and wear your prom dress one last time.

• Cook your mother’s favourite stew recipe in her old casserole dish that you couldn’t bear to part with, and serve it to your family with the honour it deserves.

• Read a paper novel one last time.

This approach is about using a physical link to the past to bring joy into the present. By giving an item its final lap of honour, you are also recording a new memory to carry into the future.

The final ‘letting go’ of your decluttered items can be made a little more painless by considering what happens to them after they leave your possession.

Donating clothes to a homeless charity, toys to a toddler group or books to a care home means that other people will benefit from the items that you no longer need. Even just giving them to a charity shop will mean that others will have a chance to use them. It is often helpful to think of this, compared with a future gathering dust in your attic.

If you are parting with items that are worth a lot of money, try selling them. You could use the money you raise to pay for a night out at the theatre or put it towards a holiday. Try not to spend it on more ‘stuff’!

Finally, for items of sentimental value that are particularly hard to part with, try re-purposing or upcycling them.

For example, cut out the applique design from your daughter’s party dress and sew it onto a tote bag. Take all your pop-concert t-shirts, and sew them into cushion covers, or a quilt or throw for a chair, or a wall-hanging. Turn your grandmother’s earrings into a pendant that you can use. Transform the scarf your friend gave you into a cushion cover. Put a string of fairy lights into the empty champagne bottle from your wedding day and use it as a lamp. The internet is full of creative ideas that you can try.

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Finally…

Don’t lose sight of your end goal.

Keep your newly decluttered space tidy and organised. Get into the habit of putting things away when you have finished using them. Create a routine of tidiness, doing little jobs throughout the day, so the clutter doesn’t start to accumulate again. This way, you will maintain  your tidy space, and continue to be able to focus on what really matters.

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